Election 2023: Live updates from Philly mayoral race, City Council, Pa. courts, N.J.

This Election Day, Mt. Airy resident Anthony Giancatarino said he was inspired to vote bright and early in person with his wife, Kate, and their three young girls as an exercise of his civic duty.

“It’s our responsibility and duty to vote,” Giancatarino said. “We do live in a Democracy, as flawed as it is. It’s important for us to bring our kids to know that they have a right to speak up and voice their opinions.”

“There’s a lot I’d like to see changed,” he said. “I wish we could invest in our schools. I really wish we’d do a lot more around abolition and police reform. I would love to see the city take a lot more leadership on sustainability, climate justice. I’d like to see fair taxes. Of property taxes. I think corporations do not pay what they should pay and communities are forced out. So those are just a few things.”

Bruce White voted at the same polling place at a Presbyterian church in Mt, Airy. He’s also a father and husband to Carla.

White, donning a curly beard and flannel, said he’s “a blue collar kind of guy.”

He voted on Election Day in person in memory of his mother.

“She instilled in us that voting is the thing that’s going to make a change,” he said. “Try to make things different in your lifetime. I remember most about my mom and also being a Black man. You want to make the vote count.”

White said he’s most interested in curbing gun violence, especially among the youth.

“There’s got to be some way to corral their minds to get them to understand violence doesn’t change the issue — education changes issues. The more education and the value even the work programs that the city might have could be helpful to these young folk. But parents should be held accountable.”

So what about year-round school, as proposed by Cherelle Parker, the Democratic nominee for mayor?

“As a former parent, year-round school is very helpful,” said White. “But it also can kind of detract from home life. So you have to balance both.”

In West Oak Lane, Barbara Bailey said she’s not a senior citizen but a “bubbly person, just an older lady that loves to just enjoy life” as she waited outside to catch a glimpse of Parker near a Masjid in deep Northwest Philly.

Bailey said she doesn’t often vote but was inspired to head to the polls for Parker as a fellow Black woman.

“She’s real good, she cares about our community,” Bailey said. “She’s powerful and she makes sense. She needs the opportunity to show some men that women can do this too.”

Bailey said her top issues were gun violence, homelessness, and especially any kind of violence where children are involved.

“Young people need to drop the guns,” she said. “Maybe we need more love in the city.”

In Kensington, Mary Ellis cast her ballot in the morning.

Ellis is a mother and Hunting Park native.

“We need change in the community,” Ellis said. “I think that there’s a lot that needs to change but I think specifically in the Kensington area. We need to see some change around the opioid epidemic and the effects on our community on our children and the crime rate.”

Ellis says her neighborhood isn’t safe for her family.

“I would never let my daughter take the same route that I did [to school] and I have a teenage daughter, I think that speaks volumes,” she said.